The Pope snubbed JD Vance when he visited the Vatican on Saturday, instead having his No. 2 give the vice president a lecture on compassion, according to a Vatican statement.
Pope Francis was absent from Vance’s conversation with Cardinal Pietro Parolin. However, the statement said there was “an exchange of opinions on the international situation, especially regarding countries affected by war, political tensions and difficult humanitarian situations, with particular attention to migrants, refugees, and prisoners.”
It called for “serene collaboration” between the White House and the Catholic Church in the U.S., a seeming hint to the tensions that have brewed between the two since President Donald Trump took office.
Pope Francis has repeatedly rebuked the president’s mass deportation effort, calling it a “disgrace” and a “grave sin.”
The pontiff has also specifically confronted Vance, the highest-ranking Catholic in the U.S. government, having converted in 2019.
Without mentioning the VP by name, the Pope corrected a Catholic concept Vance had invoked to defend the administration’s deportations, ordo amoris (order of love). In a February letter, Francis pointedly explained, “Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups.”
Vance acknowledged the Pope’s criticism, calling himself a “baby Catholic” and admitting that there are “things about the faith that I don’t know.”
In January, Vance found himself in a tussle with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops after he suggested they were helping “resettle illegal immigrants” to secure funding.
New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan fired back that Vance’s remarks were “scurrilous,” “nasty,” and “not true.”
The pope, 88, is recovering from a serious bout of pneumonia that kept him in the hospital for more than a month. However, he has resumed his official duties. He was well enough to meet with King Charles and Queen Camilla when they visited the Vatican last week.
Vance is spending the Easter weekend in Rome after meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. He and his wife, Usha Vance, were in attendance at the Vatican’s Good Friday service, Politico reported.
